Adewole Adebayo: Tinubu is a tax collector — but he has stabilised Nigeria’s finances

Adewole Adebayo, presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 election, has described President Bola Tinubu as a “well-known tax collector”.

Speaking on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ on Tuesday, Adebayo said Tinubu deployed tax collection to improve Lagos’ revenue as governor of the state and is doing the same in Abuja as the nation’s president.

“Everybody knows that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a well-known tax collector,” Adebayo said.

“But that tax collection is an improvement over a disorganised system he met on ground. He did tax collection in Lagos and he came to do tax collection in Abuja.

“The problem with Hon. Dogara’s speech is that he is overstating it. This reform is not the best but it is far better than what we had.”

The opposition politician claimed that Tinubu has managed Nigeria’s economy better than his predecessor Muhammadu Buhari.

“It’s obvious that the economy that President Buhari left was a poorly managed economy, and was an emergency room patient,” he said.

“Like any emergency room patient, the road to recovery will be a good diagnosis by the doctor.

“So if the doctor is able to know what is the reason why you are ill, he will be able to put you on a solid path to recovery.

“What President Tinubu has done is to stabilise the patient, but I’m not sure that he has managed to know the ailment. So the patient is not going to die imminently, but he hasn’t found a cure.

“He hasn’t been able to identify the ailment that is disturbing the patient.

“As an emergency room doctor, he is taking some steps, some of it actually aggravated the case of the patient, but over time, he appears to have one or two wins in two sectors, which is why it appears that they might be deceived into thinking that the patient is on his road to recovery.”

On June 26, Tinubu signed four major tax reform bills into law, in a bid to simplify Nigeria’s tax collection system and ease the burden on low-income earners and small businesses.

The new laws will take effect on January 1, 2026.

‘HE HAS BETTER BALANCE SHEET THAN BUHARI’

Speaking further, Adebayo said Tinubu’s reforms have improved government revenue.

“One, he has managed to get more revenue. At least in nominal terms, domestic borrowing that was the feature of President Tinubu’s public finance has reduced,” he said.

“So he’s managed to get some revenue. Of course, because of other wrongheaded policies, that money he’s gotten, in real terms, will not be able to finance a lot of the government spending and infrastructure.

“However, in terms of balance sheet, Tinubu has managed to have a better balance sheet than Buhari left him.”

The SDP politician also pointed to changes in inflation computation.

“The second thing that helped them, which we will know in the long run whether it’s really a good thing to do, was that they rebased inflation,” he said.

“So they started counting inflation differently. If they say inflation has dropped to about 20 point something percent now from 21 point something percent last month, it’s not because the economy is performing better, but because the country has changed.

“Let us see what happens by the first quarter of next year, when they are implementing their budget.

“Remember that the 2025 budget doesn’t appear to have come on stream yet, so we won’t be able to know how that works in terms of macroeconomics.”

Adebayo said a relative drop in food inflation has also helped the administration’s numbers.

“The third thing that has worked for them is the relative fall in food inflation. So, food inflation has dropped, and food inflation is a major component of the inflation basket,” he said.

“Since the prices of foodstuff have come down a bit, not that those who are at home are going to feel it, because it hasn’t dropped to the level where they can feel it, but it has dropped in the numbers.

“It’s like someone who’s trying to catch a bag of rice that is placed 10 feet above your car, your hand cannot reach it, but if you drop it to eight feet, your hand still cannot reach it, but it’s lower than before. That’s how it is.

“In a way, the economy is not worse now than it was last year. It is slightly better, but still far away from where it ought to be.”